Citizenship

We're now Australian citizens!!!!!

Our citizenship ceremony was held at Brighton town hall, with other people from 26 countries.  We read out a pledge, received a certificate and goodie bag from the mayor, and then sang the Australian national anthem.  Here are some pictures - you can see that I'm very proud  :)

At work the next day they organised a morning tea for me to celebrate, with lots of Australian biscuits and cakes.  The invite said that they were celebrating the fact that Australia is a nicer place now that they can count me as one of it's citizens!  :)

Run For The Kids 2014

This year AIA (who Darren works for) were sponsoring the Run For The Kids, so they had a team of 80+ employees entering, and I just tagged along!

A RECORD number of runners laced up their trainers and took to the streets for the annual Run for the Kids challenge.
 
More than 35,160 athletes of all age and size competed in the 5.5km and 15km courses, sweating it out across the city for a great cause.

They raised $1.9 million through their efforts, which pushed the total amount raised by the event for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday appeal to an incredible $10.7 million.

 

 

 
 
One of the ambassadors of AIA Vitality is Shane Crawford, an ex AFL player who is now a presenter who does some great work for charity, and I was delighted to meet him.

 

After the race, Darren and I were interviewed at the finish line because AIA Vitality were sponsors of the race - even though I had just snuck into the team!

What a great morning!

 

Tough Mudder

For years now we've been meaning to do Tough Mudder, but we've always come up with an excuse not to do it!  But not this year.  Knowing it would be tough, we booked 2 nights on Phillip Island travelling down on the Friday night so that we couldn't have to get up too early on the Saturday, and then coming back on the Sunday so that we didn't have to move too much after doing it on the Saturday!

We stayed in a lovely apartment at Spice Island:

 

 Here we are, squeaky clean before we started:

 

Tough Mudder - here's the blurb:

Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile (18-20 km) obstacle course challenges designed to test your all-around strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie. With the most innovative obstacles and over one million participants globally to date, Tough Mudder is the premier obstacle course series in the world.
Tough Mudder is more than an event; it’s a way of thinking. It’s about pushing yourself to the limits and helping others to do the same. It’s not a race, it’s a challenge. If you were timed, what would be your motivation to stop and give someone a hand? When you run a Tough Mudder, you meet new people and overcome challenges when you get through the course—together. Running a race gets you busted knees and a medal you’ll never wear again. At the end of a Tough Mudder, you get an orange headband to proudly wear to work on Monday morning, a pint, bragging rights and membership into Mudder Nation. 

Before you start you sign a death waiver and take the Tough Mudder pledge:

As a Tough Mudder I pledge that...

I understand that Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge.

I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time.

I do not whine – kids whine.

I help my fellow mudders complete the course.

I overcome all fears.

 

And here we are at the finish!  Such a great event, but as the name suggests it was very tough and muddy!

 

 

Very glad of the spa bath where we were staying!

Mudders don't whine, but they do wine!

Grand Prix

March means it's time for the Grand Prix :)

I know that it's all about the cars, but this year a highlight for me was the stunt motorbikes:

 

And now the cars: